The quickest and most effective way to irk Giants co-owner Wellington Mara is to take a shot at the fans, those loyalists who fill Giants Stadium for every home game, some of whom have been shelling out money to see Mara’s team for several decades.

Mara, though, did not come down hard on Jeremy Shockey, the second-year tight end who on Monday lambasted those fans who left Giants Stadium with six minutes to go and the Dolphins, leading 16-10, driving for another score. Miami got the touchdown and won, 23-10.

The comment was made to Pat Hanlon, the Giants vice president of communications, who said, “He said it in a tone that suggested Shockey’s comments were much ado about nothing.”

Coming off a game in which he matched a career-high with 11 catches for 110 yards (plus a taunting penalty), Shockey was still charged up immediately afterward when he took on the paying customers who opted to leave early.

“Hey, give up on us if you want to,” Shockey said. “Leave. Leave the game. Don’t even come to the game if you don’t want to. We’ve got the best fans in the world when we’re doing things right. But when things are kind of hitting the fan and going bad, hey, they don’t want to have any part of us, which is fine.”

John Mara, the Giants executive vice president, acknowledged that many fans might have made an early departure in order to get home before sundown, which was the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. “[Shockey’s] not going to be close to being aware of that,” Mara said.

Others probably took off to beat the traffic, which can be brutal following games.

“We park approximately 30,000 cars per game, more for night games, because people tend to come from work,” Mara said. “I would bet most other stadiums in the country have half that amount of cars. The No. 1 complaint that people have is getting out of the stadium after the game. That’s why you have a lot of ’em leave early. Even if it had not been for the holiday, you come to expect it towards the end of the game, especially if it’s somewhat one-sided. Not that that one was; it was a six-point game.”

As far as Giants fans leaving the stadium before the end of games, Mara said it’s ongoing but something not unique to Giants Stadium.

“If you remember in Washington it was the same situation: We had the lead and they started to leave that stadium in droves, and all of a sudden the game is tied and the stadium was more than half empty,” Mara said.